Ideas, resources, book reviews, and discussions especially for independent School Librarians.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Blogging Goals

Happy New Year!
I spent the past few weeks evaluating a lot of things, both personal (my budget, my garden, my clutter) and professional (my school blog, my lessons/collaboration for January, my presentations, my blog), as many people do this time of year. After thinking about why I blog, new ideas for the blog, and when to blog, I made some new goals I'd like to share with you.

1. Redesign Archipelago. I am currently working on a new look in WordPress. I hope to have it all done by the end of January. I want to make it easier to read on different browsers, and I want to give it a cleaner look. Anyone have any tips in what to look for in a WordPress theme?

2. Diversify the perspective and the dialog. I want to attract guest bloggers. Would you like to be one? Some are already in the works with seeds planted and minds pondering. I also want to encourage more collaboration through enticing more people to comment on the blog, and therefore I need to start more interesting conversations.

3. Find a schedule. In order to make the blog fun and not a burden, I need a schedule of minimum posts. So, my goal is to write at least one new post every two weeks.

4. Increase visibility and readership while maintaining balance. This one will be difficult, but is most crucial. I enjoy being part of the blogging librarian community, but I do not want it to take over my life - I am a working mom and I do have other hobbies! I think the word balance will be my mantra.

This month is going to be very busy with teaching Diigo for the first time, working with the whole 8th grade on a research project with new technology components, two presentations at another school, a presentation to the faculty, and I am sure more adventures will surface. I am apprehensive about how busy I will be and I hope to tackle reflecting on the projects in my next posts.

Contributors

Why Archipelago?

An archipelago is a group of many islands. The independent school community is like an archipelago in that we are separate, and yet we are similar. We have our own libraries which are unique to our schools and independent from one another. We meet together, learn from each other, have associations and publications; we are like islands, and yet we form a group. I am proud to be a part of an amazing group of librarians. Through AISL and ALA ISS, and through local groups like Southern California's Independent School Library Exchange (ISLE), I learn, collaborate, share, and make friendships.